assignment of business english

20+ Great Business English Topics and Lesson Activities

For Business English students, it’s important that ESL lessons are based on the needs of their day-to-day work.

They want to practice situations taken from their professional environment, and discuss real-life Business English topics.

Some are: making phone calls, being able to hold and carry on conversations, speaking with colleagues, preparing and giving presentations, or negotiations. 

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Coming up with creative activities and finding good topics for your lessons can be tough and time-consuming.

The Business English activities in this post will save you time and effort in making quality content for your lessons.

About the Business English Topics And Activities

Topic: airbnb business travel, topic: commuting to work, topic: big business (amazon, coca-cola, netflix, etc.), topic: artificial intelligence and future technology, topic: music, bonus activity.

Lessons including well-designed activities will prepare your students for their professional lives and give them the necessary skills and vocabulary needed to communicate effectively in English.

The 20 activity suggestions you’ll find in this post relate to the topics of business travel, commuting to work, big business, artificial intelligence, technology, and music.

The activities you can do on these business English topics are from specific lesson plans based on videos , which come equipped with a range of different printable Business English worksheets , conversation topics, speaking exercises, listening activities, and writing exercises for adults.

Below are some examples of activities from these lessons that can help your Business English students improve their communication skills.

Airbnb has been expanding their services to open up the market for business travelers.

They are simplifying the process of booking and launched some tools which automatically organize your business trip expenses. This new business travel program is coming out strong.

• Phone Calling
• Writing Accommodation Descriptions
• Leaving Reviews
• Mobile App Concepts
• Debate With Hotel Owner
• Comparing and Contrasting

This topic works especially great with Business English lessons in the real estate, hospitality, or mobile app industries, but also in general for any businessmen or women who have to travel for their jobs.

This is an especially engaging Business English topic for a few reasons: it’s controversial (hotel owners aren’t happy about AirBnB) and it’s a hot topic (more and more people are choosing Airbnb over hotels).

Airbnb is a relatively new global powerhouse, revolutionizing the hospitality industry the same way that Uber revolutionized the taxi industry.

Activity: Phone Calling

Put students in pairs or a group. Assign each student a different role from the roles below, or they can choose one.

Students have to imagine that they are Airbnb hosts who just hosted:

• A small group of middle-aged business travelers
• A small group of young adult party travelers
• A small family of 4 with young children
• An individual traveler who came with his dog

Students then ‘call’ their ‘friends’ (another student in the class) to either leave a voicemail or talk about the experience (or complain about the experience!).

They should describe how the experience was as the host for these types of travelers:

• What was different about hosting each of their stays?
• Was it positive or negative and why?
• Did anything good, bad, surprising, or unusual happen during their stay?

You could even have them imagine what could be a positive and negative experience for hosting these types of travelers.

You could even get a bit more creative with this one by assigning a pair of students a role from the list above, and they have to call the ‘host’ (their partner) and ask them questions or make special requests about their stay, e.g:

• Am I allowed to bring my dog to your property?
• Is there a nice cafe in the area where I can bring my laptop to do work?
• We have a baby who cries a lot during the night. Will this bother you?

Even though with Airbnb, you would probably just message the host online, but in this case, you can make it a phone call to practice speaking.

Activity: Writing Accommodation or Property Descriptions & Reviews

Students work with a partner or group and imagine they are Airbnb hosts offering a special, exotic, or unique type of accommodation rental.

They should discuss and agree on the type of home rental they have to offer, where in the world it is, and create their own online listing for this rental on Airbnb.

In the listing, they should explain what type of rental it is, the location, the check-in and check-out procedure, a description and special features of the accommodation, and other housing details and rules.

Make students offer something different or special about their property – something they wouldn’t get somewhere else. Remember, they want to sell the experience!

Students then present their accommodation profile description to the other students in the class and then give their listing to another student or group.

The other student or group then makes a detailed review for that listing, imagining they actually stayed there.

Activity: Creating Mobile App Concepts in the Sharing Economy

Put students in pairs and give them a list of other mobile apps in the sharing economy.

• Neighborgoods

Based on the name of the app, students have to discuss and explain what they imagine the concept of the app to be and how it works.

After students work together for a couple of minutes, go around the class and ask them to report their answers. If they’re not able to imagine what it might be, you can just tell them.

Ask them questions like:

• Would this type of app be useful for you? Why or why not?
• Which app from this list would help you the most?

Try to create an in-depth class discussion about all of these apps.

For the apps listed above specifically, you can discuss things like:

• If parking is a problem for your students (JustPark)
• What they do with their dog when they go on a trip (DogVacay)
• If they would be interested to drive with a stranger for many hours (BlaBla Car)
• If they’ve ever eaten at someone’s home, from another country or culture (HomeDine)

Then, students can either work with the same or different partners to create their own concept for a mobile app in the sharing economy.

They should focus on things like:

• The special features of the app
• What problem it solves / Why it’s a good idea
• How it works
• What problems could happen when people use your app

An alternative to this one is I’ve also had students imagine that they were the founders of Airbnb, and they have to come up with their own detailed story behind the establishment of the company, which turned out to be a fun activity.

Activity: Debate Between AirBnB Representative and Hotel Owner

Put students in pairs or two small groups and they prepare for a debate.

One student or group takes the position of an AirBnB company representative and the other takes the position of a Hotel Owner.

Each side must prepare, defend, and present their positions to the other groups, presenting information about…

• Why they believe their accommodation service is better (at least 3 advantages of your service) Students must talk about the top reasons to stay in a hotel over Airbnb, or vice versa.
• If you think Airbnb should be legal or illegal and why (obviously the AirBnB rep will say it should be legal and the hotel owner will say it should be illegal)
• The positive impact your service has on society and the economy
• What actual people and guests have said about your accommodation services

You can refer to this article to help students talk about Airbnb versus hotels  if they are having trouble coming up with ideas.

Your role as the teacher will be the moderator during the debate – generating follow-up questions for the students or groups when they present their sides. Keep the debate clean and flowing smoothly.

Activity: Comparing and Contrasting (Hotels vs. AirBnB or Uber vs. Taxi)

If for any reason you don’t want to make this an official ‘debate,’ another thing you could do is just make it a general, in-depth class discussion, conversation, or compare & contrast about the advantages and disadvantages of staying in Airbnb in comparison with hotels.

Make sure students talk about their own experiences.

Transition the discussion to the conflict between Uber and Taxi, because they are facing a similar conflict for similar reasons.

If your students enjoyed the discussion about AirBnB and hotels, an interesting follow-up lesson topic for you might be about a  businessman who is building hotels designed for outer space .

Many businessmen and women in the modern world have to commute for hours and hours per week to their jobs or for work purposes. Sitting in the car or public transit like this can really have a negative impact on one’s overall lifestyle.

• Telling a Story
• Commenting on YouTube
• Expressing Frustrations or Complaining
• Talking About Lifestyle & Daily Routines

The reason this topic works so well in Business ESL lessons is that it reaches such a wide spectrum of people.

Everyone who has a job as an employee in a company, a school, a factory, etc has a unique situation. All Business English students usually have a lot to say about their experience commuting (or home office if they have that privilege!).

Activity: Telling a Story

Students work in pairs.

Student A: This student imagines that he/she spends a lot of time commuting and is very pessimistic about the situation.

This student believes that they have the worst commute in the world. Describe the situation in detail. The student should complain about it as much as possible and why they hate it so much.

They should take notes on:

• Where you live
• Your daily routine
• Where you go to work
• What’s so bad about the commute / What are the conditions of the commute
• How commuting makes you feel

The student then has to tell one negative story that they have had during their commute.

Student B: This student imagines that they spend a lot of time commuting but is very optimistic about the situation.

This student loves the situation that they have. They should discuss and explain in detail why they have the best commute in the world, talk about it as much as possible and why they enjoy it.

Also, they take notes on:

They tell one positive story that they’ve had during your commute.

After the students write notes for their roles (give them a few minutes), have them describe their situations to their partner.

They should listen to their partner’s situation carefully because they should then report the details of their partner’s situation back to the class!

Activity: Commenting on YouTube

At the beginning of the video, the reporter complains about her long daily routine and commute, and then she says to the audience:

“Before you go and post that comment telling me to ‘move closer’, you need to see that I’m not the only person doing this.”

In pairs, students should come up with a response that the following type of people would write or say to the reporter in the YouTube comments section, e.g:

• What could be a rude response to that statement in the comment section of the video?
• What could be an empathetic response to that statement in the comment section of the video?
• What could be a funny response to that statement in the comment section of the video?

Another activity you could do is give students some imaginary comments to that video, and then the students have to write responses to these imaginary comments. You can make it a speaking or writing activity.

For example, here are a few possible comments to that video:

Comment #1:

“Americans are completely crazy and lazy. You drive these huge cars to work and in  reality , you don’t need to. Look at the Netherlands and Denmark – they have very efficient bicycle transport systems and bicycles are much more environmental. It’s stupid to drive everywhere.”

Comment #2:

“The best solution to this problem is self-driving cars. Our tax money should go more to support the production of self-driving cars. That way when people commute they can do productive things.  The solution to public transit is getting better wifi connections on the subways and buses.”

You can instruct one student to write a response which agrees with each comment, and the other student to write a response which disagrees with each comment, something along those lines.

Activity: Expressing Frustrations & Complaining

Put students in pairs, or in two groups. You’ll distribute to each student pair or group two cards which read:

• A: Riding on public transport
• B: Driving in a car

Students must work together to come up with a list of all the things that frustrate them, annoy them, stress them out, or make them angry while (1) riding on public transport and (2) driving a car.

The group which comes up with the most things in the time limit (3 minutes should be good) wins.

This activity usually works really well because everyone gets angry, stressed, frustrated, etc. at some point while driving a car or riding public transportation.

A lot of good vocabulary can also come out of this one. You can even teach a couple of fun phrasal verbs related to driving when you talk about this topic:

• Cut (someone) off  – “I hate when I’m driving and someone cuts me off and then I have to slam on my brakes.”
• Pull (someone) over  – “I hate when I’m driving only a little bit above the speed limit and a police officer pulls me over.”
• Freak out  – “I hate driving with my father. He always drives aggressively and freaks out about small things.”
• Run over  – “I hate when I run over a nail or a sharp object and my tire goes flat.”
• Hold (someone) up  – “I hate when traffic holds me up and makes me late for work.”

You can use this activity for teaching students other terminology that is useful for expressing complaints or frustrations:

• I get frustrated when…
• I get all stressed out when…
• It gets me so worked up when…
• It pisses me off when…
• I totally freak out when…
• I lose my mind when…
• It drives me nuts when…

Have students then use these expressions to talk about their frustrations commuting or about their job in general.

Activity: Talking About Lifestyle, Commuting, and Employment Situations

Spending hours commuting and then hours at the office has become so integrated into the modern working world that it can have quite a profound impact on our quality of life and lifestyle, which is why it’s good to talk about in a language lesson.

Here’s an activity you can do that will give your students a good opportunity to talk about their lifestyle, commute, and employment situation.

It’s also simple, easy to prepare, and generates quality conversation.

Print a number of statements on cards and give them to the students or write them on the whiteboard in class.

Put students in pairs or groups. Have them discuss if they think the following statements are generally true or false and why:

• People are generally happier if they travel to work by car instead of public transportation.
• In the USA, people generally commute to work or school by train or bus.
• 10 days of paid vacation per year is fair from an employer.
• Regular exercise helps people deal with stress from work.
• People are more productive if they have a 4-day working week instead of 5.

Put students in pairs or groups. Have them discuss if the following statements are true or false for them personally and have them explain why:

• There is a positive working atmosphere at my job.
• I am satisfied with my work-life balance.
• Every day I eat a balanced and healthy breakfast before work.
• When I commute to work I try to be productive on the way.
• I prefer working from home rather than going to an office.
• I spend too much time at work socializing with my colleagues.

Speaking about daily routines is also a great activity if you’d like to focus on the present simple as a grammar point for your lesson.

Using big companies and corporations as a topic in your Business English lessons is practical for obvious reasons and you can make it fun too for your students.

It’s especially great to use big business as a topic if you actually have adult students who work in big companies, but they’re also applicable topics for students who have their own business or who work in smaller companies.

• History & Fun Facts
• Developing a Product
• Making Slogans
• Analyzing the Impact of Technology on Jobs

Activity: History & Fun Facts About Big Companies

As a lead-in or warm-up exercise to a lesson about big business, you can search and find some fun or interesting facts or history about the companies.

One quick activity you could do to lead to a topic is a simple fill-in-the-blank that looks something like this:

Below are 5 interesting facts about Amazon. Let the students fill in the blanks with words that they think fit.

• The founder Jeff Bazos wanted to name the company Amazon which has products from ‘A to Z’ symbolizing a large size, just like the Amazon ________________________ .
• Amazon.com started as a bookstore in Jeff Bazos’ ________________________ .
• The combined ________________________ of Amazon’s warehouses is enough to hold more water than 10,000 Olympic pools.
• Today Amazon has more than 350,000 ________________________ .
• One of Amazon’s first offices had a ________________________ which employees would  ring every time a sale was made.

Below are 5 interesting facts about Coca-Cola. Fill in the blanks with words that you think fit.

• The Coca-Cola ________________________ is recognized by 94% of the world’s population.
• The word “cola” is derived from the kola ________________________ , which contains caffeine and can have medicinal value.
• Coca-Cola can be a good ________________________ for insect bites on your skin.
• Coca-Cola spends more money on ________________________ than Microsoft and Apple combined.
• A few people once tried to sell the Coca-Cola ________________________ to Pepsi, but they were reported to the FBI.

A fun activity you can follow up with this one is instruct students to research any big business they have in mind and search for some fun facts about that company or the story behind how it started.

If they can’t think of one, you can give them  a list of the biggest or most well-known companies  in the world.

Have them give a few-minute presentation in the following lesson about the start or history of the company and a few fun facts about it. This is also good for developing presentation skills for adults in English.

They can use the questions below to help them give their presentation:

• Who started the company and when? How did the idea originate?
• What were some important moments in the company’s history?
• What are some of the company’s most successful products or services? Describe them in detail.
• What’s special or different about this company compared to the competitors?
• What are some fun facts about your company?

Activity: Developing a Product

Amazon launched a prototype store called ‘Amazon Go’ in December of 2017 – it’s a type of grocery store where you can go shopping and add things to your virtual cart so that you don’t have to wait in line or check out.

You add the products to your shopping cart and you can just leave the store, and Amazon will automatically charge your account.

They have developed other types of products and services over the years that have been successful, such as the Amazon Kindle (E-Reader) and Amazon Echo (voice-controlled smart speaker/personal assistant).

In this activity, what you do is have students work together on product development for Amazon or for another big company.

Students work with a partner or group. They imagine to be product developers for Amazon and create two of their own products, or services provided and sold by Amazon.

They should discuss and create names for the products or services, which industry the products or services are in, and then write a description for each explaining how it works, what problem it solves, what’s so special about it, as well as what problems they have experienced in the development.

It can be a special kind of mobile app, tech gadget, clothing item, or something else.

Of course, it doesn’t necessarily have to be from Amazon. You can have students choose another company.

One way you could get your students to come up with a good idea is instruct them to think of some brands that they generally buy, and then brainstorm what products they think would be cool to have from those brands.

Or you can have them think of some problems or frustrations they have in their daily life and what product or service would solve those problems for them. In the case of Amazon Go, the problem was that people hate waiting in lines at supermarkets.

Remind students that it doesn’t have to be realistic, it can be something imaginary.

Most of your students who will do this activity probably haven’t developed a product before. Keep it basic, simple, and fun, and it should go ok.

You just want students to be creative and work together to make something special.

One time I had a group who made a personal assistant who did all of his presentations for him because he hated public speaking, which I thought was pretty funny.

Students should then present their new product to the other students or groups.

Activity: Making Slogans

This is a straightforward activity and easy to assign and it works great with any student who is in marketing. Students also tend to have fun with it.

Basically, all you need to do is assign students to make a slogan for whatever company or brand you’re discussing.

One thing I’ve done to make it interesting and add a little twist to it is to have students make a list of good and bad slogans for one company.

That one has definitely brought a couple laughs to the lesson, especially for the bad slogans.

Here are a few examples I’ve gotten from students for bad company slogans for Coca-Cola:

• “Feed your sugar addiction.”
• “Put on the big pounds.”
• “Teeth are overrated.”

Anyway, give them some examples of some real slogans that have already existed for the brand before they make their own.

A few actual ones for Coca-Cola are:

• “Open Happiness”
• “Life Tastes Good.”
• “Taste the Feeling.”

The advantage of having students make their own slogan or quote is that it lets student use creativity. When students have to think creatively, they’re forced to use important vocabulary terms and language structures in a special kind of way.

In any case, have your students share and present their slogans and quotes to the other students in the class.

Another great type of ESL group activities are information gap activities. Get 10 ideas here.

Activity: Analyzing the Impact of Technology on Jobs

Another great theme and activity that comes from a discussion about companies like Amazon, is analyzing the impact of technology on jobs.

That’s one big criticism of concepts like Amazon Go that I’ve discussed with my students. The more jobs that robots do for us, the more jobs they take away from humans (Amazon Go takes jobs away from cashiers).

One activity you could do on this is to have students brainstorm and come up with two more jobs, companies, or businesses that have been taken over or lost to technological advances.

Students should specify the name or type of the technology, which industry it is in, and three general impacts of this technology (can be positive or negative impacts).

Two examples I remember hearing from students was about VHS and video rental stores being lost to online streaming services like Netflix, and driving jobs being lost to self-driving cars.

Technology : Online streaming

Industry : Entertainment

• It put VHS video rental stores out of business
• It makes people lazier because they don’t go to the video store anymore
• Illegal online pirating of films and TV becomes easier

Technology : Self-driving cars

Industry : Automotive

• Less need for delivery drivers, truckers, and taxis
• Fewer accidents on the road because machines are more precise than humans
• People can focus on other things in the car if they don’t have to concentrate on driving

You can give these examples to your students if they don’t think of them.

You can also give students the task of coming up with two jobs where it could be very difficult for technology to take over. Which jobs do you think technology couldn’t do in the future? Students should specify why it would be difficult to take over these jobs using this technology.

Doing an ESL lesson activity about the impact of technology on jobs leads us to the next point: Artificial intelligence and future technology, which has its feet in many industries and certainly draws interest from Business English students.

• Interview With a Humanoid Robot
• Making a Sci-Fi Film Plot
• Forming Opinions

This topic works especially great with Business English lessons in the IT or programming industry, but also in general for any businessmen or women who use technology regularly for their jobs.

This is an especially engaging Business English topic for a few reasons – it can get a little dark (a humanoid robot which can communicate freaks people out a bit!) and it’s also relevant – artificial intelligence and machine learning is making its way into a lot of industries, products, and software these days.

It’s interesting when the stuff that used to be sci-fi stuff turns into reality, and that’s what you want to focus on in your Business English lessons.

Activity: Interview With a Humanoid Robot

Watch the video about Sophia the robot with your students.

Basically, what students do is make an interview with her.

Sophia the robot makes for a great English lesson, period. Students are usually quite intrigued by “her” and there are so many different directions you can take this lesson.

After watching the video, instruct each student to create and write five extra questions that they would want to ask Sophia. (Questions which are not in the video interview).

After they are finished making their questions, they ask their partner the questions they made. Students then answer their partner’s questions from the perspective of Sophia the robot.

Here are some words or topics students could either use in their questions or use just as general topics to help them make their questions:

After a student answers each question, their partner should try to ask a follow-up question or two – a question you ask on the spot based on the answer you get.

Explain the concept of a follow-up question to your students and show them examples:

Original question : “What emotions do you feel?”

Answer : “I feel curious.”

Follow-up question : “Why do you feel curious?”

Answer : “I feel curious because I want to know why I was created and why I’m different than normal humans.”

Follow up question : “Can you imagine why you were created?”

Having students ask follow-up questions is great practice for developing interview and conversational skills because they have to think on their feet without time to prepare.

Activity: Making a Sci-Fi Film Plot

Watch the sci-fi short film about ‘Sight Systems’ which forecasts the evolution of ‘Google Glasses’ and Virtual Reality (which are also great topics to discuss in your Business English lessons).

After you watch the video with your students, a fun activity you could have your students do is to imagine that they are directors creating the next scenes to the short film they just watched about Sight Systems.

They should work in pairs and discuss and write what the next five scenes will be. Have them describe the scenes in detail and explain what happens in each scene.

Students then share what they came up with the other students in the class.

After this, put the students back together and they should come up with a short plot for a similar type of short film that they saw.

The plot must focus on the dangers of future technology. Alternatively, you could give them the option of creating a movie plot focusing on the bright sides of technology.

Activity: Forming Opinions and Interview Quotes

This activity can actually be applied to a range of different topics.

Put the students in pairs and have them imagine to be speaking from the perspective of the following companies or people.

Students have to make an opinion from the standpoint of each company or person.

• Gas Company
• Electric Car Company
• Solar Panel Company
• Environmental Activist
• Auto Technician
• Car Consumer

For the people above, you could have students imagine they were interviewed about their thoughts on electric charging highways.

What do they think about electric highways? Do they support or oppose them? Let them explain their opinion.

Then they have to agree on what would be the most important quote or statement from that interview.

Give students some  useful phrases for expressing opinions  to help them make their opinions or quotes, which are at least three sentences long and they explain their opinion.

You could give students an ideal example quote from an interview with an Environmental Activist:

“In the long-term, electric charging highways will be a great solution for decreasing pollution because it promotes the consumption and usage of electric vehicles, which are much better for the environment than gas-powered vehicles. However, in the short-term, electric charging highways could produce a negative impact on the environment because of the intense construction work that will be needed to create these highways all across the country. Therefore, I see a positive long-term effect and a negative short-term effect.”

You want your students to form something similar for each of the roles, then students should present the opinions or quotes they made together to the rest of the class.

Doing ESL lesson activities about music is fun and there’s a lot of different directions you can take this topic in a lesson.

Music is also a big business with all of the jobs in music production, sound technology, festivals, online streaming services like Spotify, and these days even vinyl is making a comeback.

• Organizing an Event
• Making a Business Plan
• Giving a Presentation

This topic works especially great with Business English lessons in the music industry, but also in general for any businessmen or women who use are interested in music.

This is an especially engaging Business English topic for a few reasons – people love music and it’s a big part of life for many people.

Activity: Organizing an Event

Have students work with a partner. They should imagine they are event organizers and are planning a festival concept for next summer.

They want to make it even better than the Belgian festival “Tomorrowland” and the most luxurious festival in the world.

What luxuries will there be? What special things can be added, implemented, planned, organized, or done in order to create a better festival experience for the guests?

Students should discuss these points together. They can use the discussion questions below to help them:

• What special luxuries, things, offers, products, facilities, and features you will provide?
• What will be different about the campsite? How will you make it better than Dreamville?
• Describe the atmosphere. What’s unique about the stages and performances?
• Describe the security concept. How will you make the event safe and what are the policies?

Students should then give a presentation about their festival concept to the other groups and describe in as much detail as possible what the festival will be like.

After hearing from the other groups, students can discuss which festival concept was the best and why and give advice about what might help their festival to be better.

Activity: Making a Business Plan

Students work together with a partner or group. They imagine that they are opening a vinyl store in their town. They must make a business plan and a to-do list.

Watch the video “Czech businessman leads vinyl revival” here.

They can answer these questions in their business plan:

• What is the name of your vinyl shop?
• Other than vinyls, what will you need to get started?
• How will your vinyl shop stand out from the competition?
• Describe what kind of theme or atmosphere the shop would have. How would you decorate the shop/front window?
• Describe your ideal kind of customer or target market.
• Describe your ideal kind of employee or shop assistant.
• What could be some clever ways to advertise your shop?
• What will be the biggest challenges of opening the shop?

Students can then present their business plan to the other students in the class.

Activity: Giving a Presentation

Students work with a partner or group. They imagine they are giving a presentation to a group of vinyl fanatics.

They should choose from one of the topics below they’d like to do a presentation about, or they can also make their own topic.

They should prepare and give a one-minute presentation to the other groups on their chosen topic.

Even if they don’t know much about the topic, you can just instruct them to be as creative as possible and come up with some interesting things to talk about.

Here are the topics they can choose from:

• How to create a sustainable future for vinyl
• The guide to shopping for and listening to vinyl like a pro
• The future of music
• Why the age of vinyl in the 70s beats today’s digital age
• The steps to starting up a successful vinyl shop

You can have students do research on the internet if they have access.

You can also give students the choice to also come up with their own idea for a presentation, anything in the music sector. It doesn’t have to be specifically related to vinyls.

The most important thing is that students have a structure for their presentation, have researched important information about it, and teach the class something interesting.

You can also have students include one of each of the following things in their presentation:

• A problem (Music has become too digital in modern ages.)
• A statistic or fact (Over 7.6 million vinyls were sold in the US in 2018.)
• An opinion (We believe that vinyls will continue to be popular for years.)
• A quote (Zdenek Pelc said, “If people like something, they need something touchable.”)

This one last bonus activity you could do will help your students develop the skills they need for business and professional reasons.

Have them give a “show and tell” presentation or just simply talk about three gadgets, tools, products, services, etc they’ve bought in the recent past related to one of their personal interests.

Have the students teach the class either how to use this product or service, how it works, why they bought it, what the features are, what problem it solves for them, etc.

Here are some actual examples from my students, which you can show your students to give them an idea of what you’re looking for:

• A new running watch
• A subscription to Netflix
• A Nintendo NES Classic Edition
• A new bicycle helmet
• A portable speaker

All of these activities referenced are meant to be engaging for your adult students in Business English lessons, but the most effective way to do them is with the full lesson plans via the links above.

Watching the videos with your students should generate extra discussion and give you extra content to work with.

Find more resources and ideas for your ESL lessons here.

3 thoughts on “20+ Great Business English Topics and Lesson Activities”

Brilliant content. Relevant topics and articles with comprehensive structural lesson plans. Thank you.

Practicing the business English lessons in he student life can be very helpful in longer run. This helps in the proper development of the individual for professional world. Thanks so much for sharing this!

This sight seems to be very good. Complete lessons for a teacher like me. Thank you so much for sharing it free of charge.

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6 Teaching Business English Lesson Plans for All Learner Levels

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• May 31, 2022

From learning corporate terms to mastering expressions for negotiating, Business English is brimming with topics on how students can thrive in the workplace. Teaching each concept, however, requires thorough planning and choosing the most effective materials and methods. Whether you’re new to teaching professionals or are a seasoned Business English teacher looking to design better classes, here are some teaching Business English lesson plans you can use for different types of learners.

Learn more about what teaching Business English entails.

Table of Contents

What are some tips for teaching Business English lessons?

Before you get started in mapping your Business English classes out, here are some pointers to keep in mind when specializing in this ELT niche :

• Make sure that you know your students’ backgrounds. Where do they work? What are they responsible for? How do they use English at work? Conduct a needs assessment before launching into your course.
• Get your learners comfortable before you start your lessons by using icebreakers , Business English games , and other warm-up activities .
• Provide vocabulary and practice activities that students will be able to use at their actual jobs. 
• Prioritize skills that your learners need at work. If they often meet with offshore clients, for example, business meeting phrases should be one of the first lessons you teach.
• Better define your lesson objectives and teaching strategies by making use of Bloom’s taxonomy , which classifies cognitive skills.

Consider these additional strategies, from the Bridge Specialized Certification in Teaching Business English course , when planning your overall curriculum, as well as your individual lesson plans:

Business English lessons for beginners

These free Business English lesson plans are great for professional students with a lower level of English. They can be used in both online and in-person classes.

Find out how to get a job teaching Business English.

Lesson plan #1: Types of companies

Lesson topic: Types of companies

Lesson objectives: By the end of the lesson, students will be able to describe different types of companies and say the products or services each one produces or provides.

• A physical or virtual whiteboard
• PowerPoint slides containing 10 logos of different companies and pictures of different types of companies

Lesson plan #2: Staying at a hotel

Lesson topic:  Staying at a hotel

Lesson objectives: By the end of the lesson, students will be able to make requests and ask for information in a hotel.

• PowerPoint slides containing a list of expressions for booking a room, checking in, and asking about hotel services
• An audio file or video of a hotel receptionist and guest ( like this one )

Business English lessons for intermediate learners

The following teaching Business English lesson plans are great for intermediate learners who already have a thorough understanding of basic English concepts.

Lesson plan #3: Modals of obligation, necessity, and prohibition

Lesson topic:  Modals of obligation, necessity, and prohibition

Lesson objectives: By the end of the lesson, students will be able to talk about the rules in their workplace using the modals of obligation, necessity, and prohibition.

• Handouts (or PowerPoint slides) of the some of the points from this article on company policies

Lesson plan #4: Making a request by email

Lesson topic:  Making a request by email

Lesson objectives : By the end of the lesson, students will be able to write a formal email to make a request.

• PowerPoint slides showing expressions for writing formal emails
• An example of a professional email chain

In a recent BridgeUniverse Expert Series webinar , panelists discussed how Business English teachers can tackle the topic of writing business emails with their students. For additional lesson plan ideas, check out what these experts had to say:

Business English lessons for advanced learners

Lastly, these teaching Business English lesson plans should ideally be used with advanced students who are looking to take their language skills to the ultimate level: fluency.

Lesson plan #5: Working with people from different cultures

Lesson topic: Working with people from different cultures

Lesson objectives : By the end of the lesson, students will be able to talk about their experiences working with people from other countries and give advice on cross-cultural work relationships.

• Handouts (or PowerPoint slides) of the article “10 Ways to Work Effectively Across Cultures”

If you’re struggling when it comes to incorporating classroom tasks like those outlined in these free Business English lesson plans, take a look at the following video from the Specialized Certification in Teaching Business English course . It offers tips for conducting task-based learning in a Business English classroom:

WORKSHEETS for English teachers

Business english, search for efl/esl resources to use in your business english classes. you can also follow a business english course from the course plans page or use the filter options to refine your search. worksheets and lesson plans that are not indicated with a padlock symbol are free to download..

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Customised lessons

Worksheet type

267 lessons

Advanced (C1-C2)

In this worksheet, the concept of ‘time poverty’ is discussed in relation to the workplace and how it affects families, and particularly women. Exercises focus on reading and listening skills as well as relevant vocabulary. Students will also have the opportunity to discuss ideas relevant to the topic.

by Joe Wilson

Intermediate (B1-B2)

In this lesson, students will listen to an interview discussing the trend of "boomerang kids" – young adults moving back home with their parents – and read an article about the situation. Exercises focus on reading and listening skills, related vocabulary and students will have an opportunity to discuss the issues relating to the topic.

This lesson looks at the issue of Ageism in the workplace. Students will read an article and listen to a conversation focusing on the issue. Exercises look at related vocabulary, reading and listening skills and offer students an opportunity to discuss issues relating to the topic.

Note: this lesson can take 60-90 mins.

This worksheet focuses on online fraud using a conversation with a fraud helpline and an article discussing the various methods that criminals use for scams. Exercises focus on reading and listening skills and related vocabulary, and students will have an opportunity to discuss questions related to the topic.

This lesson looks at the increase in popularity of the antiwork movement over the last few years and the effect of the pandemic on people’s attitudes to working. Exercises focus on listening and reading skills and related vocabulary and students will be given the opportunity to discuss the many issues relating to the topic.

This worksheet centres on an article which looks at the Agile Scrum method of project management. In addition, there is a listening exercise where two people discuss Agile Scrum and how it works using an example. Exercises focus on reading and listening skills, related vocabulary, finding synonyms and students have the opportunity to discuss questions related to the subject.

Upper-intermediate (B2-C1)

This worksheet focuses on an interview of a business professor talking about business ethics. There is also an article looking at how globalisation creates problems for acting ethically as a business and discusses what steps can be taken. Exercises focus on listening and reading skills, related vocabulary as well as giving students the opportunity to discuss some of the issues presented in the lesson. 

A breaking news lesson on the recent trial of Theranos CEO Elizabeth Holmes, with a news report about the trial. Students will learn related vocabulary, practise reading and listening skills and reinforce their new vocabulary with conversation practice.

by David J. Marriott 

This lesson is based on a listening task with two people discussing the question; What makes an employee a high achiever? There is also an article which looks at what managers need to do in order to keep successful employees working at the company. Exercises focus on related vocabulary, listening and reading skills, and give students the opportunity to discuss issues related to the topic.

*This lesson can take 60-90mins.

This lesson is based on an article looking at why and how to conduct an effective exit interview and a listening task where students have to listen to an exit interview taking place. Exercises focus on related vocabulary, phrasal verbs, reading skills, and listening skills. Students will have the opportunity to discuss issues related to the topic.

In this lesson, students learn legal language related to informed consent and the duty of care by discussing what doctors need to disclose to their patients in the modern technological age. This issue is going to become more common as technology advances and creates new risks.

by Susan Iannuzzi

This lesson focuses on a news report about Jack Dorsey’s departure from Twitter and also an article about the life of Jack Dorsey. Exercises look at related vocabulary, listening skills, reading skills and give opportunities for discussion of some of the issues raised in the texts.

A breaking news lesson about Portugal’s recent move to make it illegal for employers to contact workers after working hours, with a news report about the new law and an article offering the opinions of four employees on their work situation. Students will learn related vocabulary, practise reading and listening skills and reinforce their new vocabulary with conversation practice.

by David J. Marriott

This lesson is based around a video looking at advice to more effectively deal with work/life balance and avoid burnout and stress. Exercises look at related vocabulary and encourage students to understand vocabulary within context. In addition, students will have the opportunity to discuss issues related to the theme of the lesson.

Linguahouse.com is in no way affiliated with, authorized, maintained, sponsored or endorsed by TED Conferences LLC.

This lesson centres on two articles about the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic on certain markets: namely the tobacco market in South Africa and the global second-hand car market, with specific focus on the UK. Exercises look at related vocabulary and reading skills and give students an opportunity to discuss the issues raised in the articles.

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Executive English: 4 Business English Lesson Plans That Turn Students into Influencers

Building confidence in business is a lifelong gift you can give your students.

Never again will they clam up when coworkers make chit-chat.

No longer will their voices lose power during interviews and meetings.

Taking your ESL students to the next level in their careers is rewarding for not only your students, but for you as well. It gives you, their ever enthusiastic teacher , a great sense of accomplishment.

You will see your business English students blossom, get promoted, develop confidence and take on different professional personas—ones loaded with strength and self-assurance.

Crafting exceptional and informative business  English lesson plans is the first step to your students’ success.

Download: This blog post is available as a convenient and portable PDF that you can take anywhere. Click here to get a copy. (Download)

The Cornerstones of Business English Lessons

If this is your very first time developing plans for business English classes , we have you covered here.

One of the most essential aspects in developing ESL business English lesson plans is to get to know your students  and find out the information needed to make the lesson practical for them .

If you have a student working in corporate marketing, then a business English lesson pertaining to accounting would be almost useless. Knowing your students, their careers and needs will help you connect with them in an informative, concise way. Your lessons will be useful to them outside of the classroom, building more confidence on their professional paths, whatever those might be.

So, you should know the following about every student:

• Where they work
• What their job responsibilities are
• What they do on a normal day at the office
• When and how are they exposed to English at work (email, meetings, calls, conferences, etc.)

These questions are essential to building a lesson plan your students will enjoy!

Give your students a survey on the first day of class that asks these questions and more like them, then save the completed surveys in your teaching binder or folder.

Take the following lesson plans, combined with the specific information about your students, to create targeted lesson plans students can use in their everyday professional lives and to better their career prospects.

4 Business English Lesson Plans That Promote Rapid Career Growth

Each of these lesson plans is built on the PPP (Presentation, Practice, Production) method of creating plans for language lessons. You can learn more about how this works (and how to create your own from scratch) here!

FluentU takes authentic videos—like music videos, movie trailers, news and inspiring talks—and turns them into personalized language lessons.

1. Breaking the Ice

In your students’ business lives, breaking the ice in their native tongue is terrifying enough at times.

Imagine the anxiety and stress having to break the ice in English must induce.

This does not need to be the norm. You can give your students the essential ESL skills they need to feel confident and to succeed. After all,  speaking English  and speaking (any language) at work is mostly about confidence, and the role of psychology is almost as important as knowing the right words and grammar to use in these situations.

This English lesson plan focuses on starting a conversation, ending a conversation and general role playing for students to hone what they have learned. Let’s take a look at what this lesson will contain and how to present your business English lesson plan material.

Presentation

This lesson plan’s presentation will consist of useful phrases. You will present to your class the essential knowledge they will need to make ample English small talk in any and all business situations .

An excellent place to start is with the actual phrase “breaking the ice.” What do they think this phrase means? What are some examples of “breaking the ice” with coworkers? You will elicit answers from your students and discuss some ways they think they can “break the ice” in a business situation—or examples of when they have done this in the past.

You will also discuss other important phrases, useful for opening a business conversation in English.

Here are a few example phrases you can use in your lesson:

• Hello, my name is ______, are you enjoying your evening?
• Where are you from?
• What company do you represent?
• How long have you worked here/there?
• Which department do you work in?
• How do you like your job?
• Did you catch the morning lecture?
• Do you mind if I join your group?

After you share and discuss these quick little door openers, you can move on to excellent ways to end a business conversation in English. Many of your students use these in their native language already, so, in my experience, they will catch on fast.

Here are a few conversation closers you will share with your students in the presentation:

• It was nice to talk to you, I must excuse myself.
• Great to meet you, do you have a card? (or, here is my card).
• I must be going, I see my boss signaling toward me.
• Thank you, it was nice to meet you and we should discuss this further later.
• Do you have LinkedIn? Let’s connect there to continue our conversation.

These conversational wrap-ups are great for your students and will eliminate those awkward moments of saying goodbye in business settings.

When your students have listened and understand the phrases, you can move into this practicing stage.

You will have all the phrases you discussed cut into two parts a set for each pair of students. Once your students are paired up, you will distribute the mixed up parts of the phrases and they will work together trying to piece each phrase back together.

This jigsaw of sorts will allow your students to communicate and discuss which section goes with which, further creating the phrase in their mind. For example, one piece of paper will contain “Did you catch… ” and your students will try to match it with ” …the morning lecture?”

Go over which combinations are correct and take questions, then have the students copy down the correct phrases in their notebooks for future reference.

Once all pairs have matched and discussed the jigsaw business English phrases, they are ready for a more practical exercise.

Each student will be given a card you have made with their occupation, company, the lecture they attended and a few family/hobby details. Students will then be paired up. The pairs will change every five minutes and the students will have an opportunity to break the ice, discuss a few topics and end the conversation.

You can float around the room and make sure the conversations are on track, while answering any questions which may arise.

All in all, this is a wonderful business English lesson plan with communication, collaboration, vocabulary and self-expression at the core.

2. Involvement in Meetings

Business meetings are an essential part of business and there are often several meetings held within an average work week.

Participation in business meetings can be another daunting engagement your students may currently try to avoid. Your students need to be prepared and have the business English skills necessary to participate with confidence and increase their chances for recognition, responsibility and promotion.

This business English lesson plan can help them understand the importance of meeting involvement while gaining the ESL skills they need to be successful in all areas of life.

Preparation

Yup, one extra P is here!

For this business lesson, you will need to craft a well-organized worksheet to help guide your students in the right direction.

The worksheet will contain two parts. Part one will have useful words, phrases and lead-in sentences commonly found in business meetings, while part two of the worksheet will have two different role playing scenarios your students will use in their mock meetings.

Your first objective will be to ask your students about business meetings they have been involved in or their concepts of a normal business meeting.

Many of your students will have had some type of meeting experience, but maybe not in English. You should draw from their previous experiences and allow them to describe it and discuss it in English. Next, you will discuss several business English phrases used in meetings. You can get more great phrases to introduce from this post .

Here are a few great examples to put into your presentation and worksheet:

• Could you please clarify what you mean?
• Can you please speak up a bit, I can’t hear you very well?
• Please continue, I apologize for interrupting.
• What if we… ?
• What would you think about…?

You and your class will discuss these phrases as a class and you will give examples of how each could be used.

In this step of your business English lesson plan, you will organize the class into small groups. The size of each group depends on your class size, of course.

Then you will hand out the worksheet and allow your students to practice using the new business meeting phrases with one another. Give them time to discuss the phrases amongst themselves and ask you any questions they may have.

Once all practice has been enthusiastically carried out, it is time to let the role playing commence!

Part two of the worksheet will be the guide to a specific business meeting scenario. For example, if you want your students to brainstorm a few marketing strategies for a certain product, you will give them a product to discuss in a meeting scenario.

“The meeting will be centered around new marketing strategies for Starbucks coffee.

What can you and your team come up with during this meeting?

Take notes, deliver concise ideas and support each idea with why  you think this idea is effective.”

Let your students loose to collaborate and participate in a mock meeting using the new business English phrases discussed in the presentation and practice stages of your lesson plan. This activity will give your students key business meeting phrases, collaboration, English expression of ideas and also allow them to gain more confidence for practical use.

3. Questions in Negotiation Situations

Negotiations are another key aspect of business English.

Many business English students shy away from their native language style of negotiating when it comes down to trying to negotiate in English. Developing confidence is essential in negotiations and, if your students possess this key element, they will have more success at the negotiating table.

This business English lesson plan will give your students the four steps of negotiation and how to embody each step when at the office.

In order to ask the right questions in negotiation, your students must first know the cycle of a negotiation. You will present each step and discuss them as a class, giving examples or answering important questions.

These are the steps of negotiation to cover in your lesson plan:

1. Exploration . This is when two parties explore what each offers, expects and hopes to obtain in the negotiation.

2. Bidding. The bidding stage is when exploration is complete and one of two parties offers and exchange for goods or money.

3. Bargaining. This is an essential stage, when both parties negotiate until a satisfactory term is met.

4. Settling. Settling is essentially the finalized agreement. This is the handshake and signing of contracts stage.

Each stage is important and knowing the right questions to ask in each stage is also very important for your students to understand.

After the stages are discussed and fully understood, you can partner your students up and have them brainstorm questions that would be useful in each stage. For example:

“What warranty or guarantee does your company offer on this particular product?”

This question is a perfect Exploration question used to get the facts and details out on the table. Your students will brainstorm essential questions for each stage of negotiation together. This will create collaboration and develop ideas useful for the practice stage.

You could even craft a worksheet about the above stages, along with useful questions and answers, to help guide your students during the lesson.

With your students still in pairs, they will be given a role-play scenario in which one is the buyer and the other is the seller. Your example role-play will look something like this:

Seller: You are the representative for a groundbreaking MP3 player similar to the iPod. You must convince your buyer to sell your product and not the others.

Buyer: You see potential in the new music product, but you are still uncertain about making the switch in products and need to get more information.

This role playing scenario will follow the four stages of negotiation and your students will use the questions they brainstormed while practicing to have a successful negotiation which may or may not lead to a successful Settling stage agreement.

4. Meeting management

Meeting management in business is another important task your students may need more confidence and ESL skills to perform.

This practical exercise is the next step up from getting involved in a meeting, since your students will now plan and guide a business meeting in class.

This business English lesson plan will allow your students to practice emailing, collaboration and build confidence to guide and keep other members of a meeting on track.

Your students will need the key aspects of email structure to allow them to email colleagues effectively and efficiently to get the meeting time, date and location set.

Before introducing any new material, ask your students to write a short email inviting a colleague to join a meeting. Afterwards, have each student read theirs aloud. You can use their emails as a guide to introduce the proper email language necessary for landing a business meeting.

Here are the essential aspects of a well-developed email for planning a business meeting:

• Project details and objectives
• Q & A about the project
• Brainstorming and collaboration to make project a success
• Important points to note

This short and concise email format will be a great template not only for the lesson, but for them to also use in a more practical business situation. You can also give great examples on the board or in a slideshow to really allow your students to soak up the new information.

Once your students have  crafted their own emails  without any instruction on proper language, and have then watched your presentation of relevant words, phrases and grammar, they are ready to do some more serious email drafting.

Put them into small groups and let them discuss, collaborate and craft their new business meeting emails to one another in the group.

Each student will write an email using the business meeting email format, addressing it to another student in their group. The receiving student will then write a reply to the email as well.

Your students have crafted emails and invited others to their meetings. Next, they will each take turns running the meeting and keeping everyone on task.

You will give each student a meeting topic and let them present the project details and objectives before opening the floor up for Q & A from other meeting members. For example:

“Introduce a new MP3 player which rivals the iPod to your meeting members. It costs less, holds more music, comes with better headphones and also has an interactive touch screen. Your team must brainstorm new ideas to market this product.”

Each student will have an opportunity to introduce a new product and run the meeting accordingly. They will learn valuable communication skills, writing , leadership skills and also develop more confidence when taking charge in a business meeting scenario.

So, as you can now see, business English lesson plans are excellent to have in your teaching arsenal.

They are perfect for your pre-intermediate to advanced level students who have a career (or are preparing for a future career) in the corporate world.

These lesson plans are simply essential for ESL students looking to make a shift and move into the business sector of employment, seeking promotion within their company or generally wanting to build more confidence when speaking to foreign clients and colleagues.

These business English lessons will give your students the important resources needed to be successful in their career and beyond.

Plan those lessons well, with their needs in mind, and hand them the keys to success!

Stephen Seifert  is a writer, editor, professor of English and adventurer. With over 7 years of teaching experience to students worldwide, he enjoys the many aspects of culture and traditions different from his own. Stephen continues his search for writing inspiration, boldly enjoying life to the fullest.

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Business English

Business English communication skills are essential for getting ahead at work. Improving your professional business vocabulary and knowledge will help you work more effectively and open up new career opportunities.

Using English in a business environment

English is recognised as the most internationally popular language, which makes it the most dominant language in the business world. Even if you have a good level of basic English, learning business English will give you the chance to demonstrate a wider professional vocabulary which can result in new opportunities in your career.

Studying business English allows you to develop English language skills that are useful in an office or other business environments. By understanding the communication skills needed in the workplace, you can gain the confidence to build strong relationships with your colleagues and clients.

Business English learning support resources

Here you can find a wide variety of activities to develop your interview skills, write clear emails in English and learn about business topics and issues. Watch videos, listen to podcasts or read articles, then complete the specially designed tasks to help you understand the topic and use the language skills that you have learned.

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Our online courses are designed to help you learn the skills you need for real life, including communicating at work.

Develop your business English skills with classmates in live group classes, get business English support from a personal tutor in one-to-one lessons or practise by yourself at your own speed with a self-study course.

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Learn Business English - The Definitive Guide

Table of Contents

Strengthen your grammar, read, read, and read some more, write more often, practice listening to business english, take a business english course, improve your english business writing skills today..

Learning business English , like any language, is a process that involves dedication and many different strategies. You need to approach learning business English in a long-term, holistic, dynamic, and authentic way to become a better English speaker and writer.

You must have strong English grammar for business writing. People simply won’t take you seriously if your writing is full of grammatical and punctuation mistakes.

Strengthening your current level of grammar can seem frustrating and never-ending, but there are several small, daily actions you can take:

• Use Grammarly - Grammarly is a free online tool you can use through Google Chrome. It checks any and everything you write online, and you are able to upload documents to the site as well. There is a paid version as well, but for non-native writers I find the free version to be better because it focuses on basic and common grammar issues (the paid version identifies more sophisticated issues that aren’t applicable to all types of writing). Grammarly will help you identify and correct your mistakes. Once you know what your mistakes are, you can study up on those areas on English Page (grammar only) and Online Writing Lab (grammar and punctuation).
• Improve your use of prepositions. This blog post and video explain a technique that can help you. Use this same technique for all sorts of grammar.
• Read our business writing blog ! There are lots of posts about different grammar topics. Browse through or search by topic. Subscribe to the blog by entering your email in the field on the right-hand side of the screen.

Get better at English business writing in one of our online self-paced courses.

Enroll at any time, and start learning today!

Reading is the best way to improve your business English vocabulary and business English skills for writing. Reading anything and everything is good, but to really build effective business communication in English (and add to your English vocabulary list), you need to read business texts. Here are some good options:

• The Harvard Business Review : Sign up for a free account and access up to 15 articles per month (without an account, you can only access five articles per month). There are hundreds of articles written at a high level of business English on all sorts of business-related topics.
• The Wall Street Journal : There is lots of good content here, though you may need a subscription or at least an account.
• The Economist : Again, there is good content, but you can only access a certain number of articles each month without an account.
• Forbes : You'll find lots of shorter articles that are easy to read, as well as longer, more in-depth stories.
• Paul Krugman’s blog in the New York Times: This is a blog, so you will notice some differences between this and a standard newspaper article (Use of “I," a more casual and conversational tone, etc.) You can read up to ten free articles per month at nytimes.com. After that, you need a subscription. Paul Krugman is an excellent author, and as an economist, he addresses finance and other technical topics.
• Fortune Magazine : This publication is most famous for its “Fortune 500,” the list of the 500 most powerful companies around the world.
• Bloomberg Businessweek : Another trove of well-written business news.
• Entrepreneur : This is geared towards entrepreneurs, as you might expect from the title, and has many well-written articles that will help your business skills as well as model good English writing.
• Fast Company : This publication focuses on innovative and creative ideas, so it’s useful to non-native readers from companies where time-tested approaches are valued more than innovation. It will stretch your business approach as well as provide a good model of business English.

The key is to read business texts from a variety of sources daily consistently . Set a realistic goal and aim to read good business English for at least 15 minutes per day. Enjoy it with your morning coffee or tea!

Reading alone won’t strengthen your writing. Like any skill, business writing takes practice. So, to improve your business English writing skills, you need to write, and write often! Here are some ideas for how to get started:

• Take some of the topics that you usually write about in your field and write these in English.
• Google “business letter topics”, “business email topics”, or “business report topics." You’ll find lots of great ideas to get started writing.
• Once you have written a practice letter/email/report, upload it to Grammarly (can you tell we like this tool?) for grammar feedback. This will help you identify your most common grammatical errors for different styles of writing.

As with reading, you’ll need to write a variety of texts consistently to build and maintain your business English writing skills and incorporate them into daily communication.

Whatever your English level, you sometimes need to give your eyes and fingers a break from all that reading and writing. You can still strengthen your business English skills even when you are not reading and writing! Apply your listening skills and listen to a business podcast on your way to work or while exercising. Here are some good options:

Remember that podcasts are spoken English, and they tend to be conversational. The language used will often be less formal than most business English writing needs to be.

But, podcasts are a great way to expand your vocabulary and knowledge base about a variety of business topics. Plus, they are a nice break from other types of practice and help you hear common key phrases in business.

Like everything else, you’ll get the most benefit from listening daily!

Pro Tip: Listening to conversational business English will help you to learn idioms and phrasal verbs .

The methods above are great for independent work. However, to truly improve your business English communication skills, especially writing, you need to take an English course for writing that provides you with individualized feedback.

You need a person, not just a computer program, to tell you exactly where you are shining and where you need to focus your energy. You may find that your grammar is strong, but you need to work on tone, directness, or more appropriate vocabulary. A good course will teach you strategies and an effective process, not just quick business writing tips and tricks.

Take your English language skills to the next level with a face-to-face course or an online class. Instructional Solutions offers a wide variety of online business writing courses for non-native speakers of English and for native speakers . We focus on context-specific writing practice with individualized feedback in key areas, including grammar, punctuation, tone, and organization.

Combining independent practice with a business writing course that includes instructor support (hint: our instructors are professional writers) is the best way to improve your overall business communication skills in English as a business professional. Our course learning experience is tailored to help you follow a specific writing process, avoid business jargon, write different types of content, and more. 

Enroll in our online, self-paced course, and receive instructor feedback on your actual business English writing. Available for groups and individuals. 

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ESL Speaking

Games + Activities to Try Out Today!

in Activities for Adults

Business English Activities, Games & Dialogues | Business Lesson Ideas

If you teach business English, then you’re certainly in the right place! We’re going to give you the rundown on our top business English games and activities as well as recommendations for worksheets, lesson plans and more.

Activities for Teaching Business English

Business English Games and Activities

Are you ready to see some of the best ESL activities and games for teaching business English? Then let’s get to everything you need to know!

#1: Role Plays

I love to incorporate role plays into my business English classes. The situations are endless! For example, an important telephone conversation with a client. Or, present your passport to the immigration officer at the airport. Or, meeting a potential client for the first time.

You can use role-plays to help your students practice these important situations which will increase their confidence in a huge way. Find out more about using them in your classes here: ESL Role Plays .

#2: Current Events Presentations for ESL Business English

Business English students are generally pretty up-to-date on what’s happening in the world. Plus, they’re often expected to do presentations at work so this is a nice activity to use in your classes. Find out more about how I set it up here:

ESL Current Events Presentation .

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#3: Help with Expressing Opinions

In business, you’ll often be called upon to express an opinion about something. For example, which marketing idea is the best, or who to partner up with for a project. However, ESL students are often quite weak at this because they don’t have the necessary vocabulary and they may also lack practice.

Here’s some solid advice that you can give your students about how to do this well: Expressing Opinions in English .

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#4: Task Based Activities for Business ESL Lessons

We love to use task-based activities with our students. There are just so many things you can do! In groups, students could do any of the following:

• Come up with a new product
• Create an innovative advertising campaign for a current product
• Do a company profile
• Audit a website

The possibilities are endless so get creative and think of some interesting things for your students to do. You can find more ideas here: ESL Task Based Teaching .

#5: Cocktail Party

It’s quite common for business people to meet important clients at a party or meet and greet event. However, for English learners, this can be a challenging situation because they may not feel that confident at small talk. Try out this ESL activity that replicates these very situations:

ESL Cocktail Party Activity .

#6: English Central or YouTube Videos Related to Business

We LOVE to use videos in our English classes. You can find one for just about any topic, grammar point or vocabulary set under the sun. Except there’s more to it than just pressing play and sitting back and relaxing. The best teachers design activities that help get the most out of them.

Here are some of our best ideas: English Central and YouTube Videos for ESL Students.

#7: Business English Reading Lesson

It’s very easy to plan your own ESL reading lesson about literally any topic. I love to make my own lessons for Business English because you can include the most recent topics in the news. Find out how to do that here:

#8: Conversation Starters

Small talk and basic conversational English is vital for business English students. It often doesn’t work that well if you tell students to just talk to each other. Instead, give them some conversation starters to get the ball rolling and you’ll usually find that the results are much better.

Here are some of my best ideas: ESL Conversation Starters.

#9: Practice Opening Conversations

It’s sometimes not that easy to start a conversation with someone that you don’t know. However, there are certainly some tried and true topics that work very well for this situation. Find out more details right here: How to Open a Conversation in English.

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• 208 Pages - 04/10/2016 (Publication Date) - Pearson Education ESL...

#10: Dialogue Substitution for Business English ESL

If you’re teaching beginners, it can be a little bit tricky to design activities for them. One of the best ones to consider is dialogue substitution. You can use it for a variety of situations that business people might encounter from situations at the airport, telephone conversations or talking about a problem related to their company.

The way it works is that you give students the beginning of a conversation with blanks in it. Students have to work together to finish the conversation and then present it to the class. Find out more details about it here: ESL Dialogue Substitution .

#11: The Expert Speaking Activity

If you want to give your students some practice with small talk, try out this fun, interactive activity. The way it works is that students think of three things that they know a lot about, or are an expert in. Then, students go into pairs and can talk about these topics with each other. You can switch partners every few minutes.

Find out more details here: The Expert Speaking Activity .

#12: Plans for the Future

Business often involves making plans for the future. For example, planning for that next marketing campaign or deciding on a vision for the company. Students will need to be proficient in using future grammatical constructions for this. Find out some of our top recommendations here: Future Forms ESL Activities .

Or, you may want to check out some of these ideas here: Making Predictions Games .

#13: ESL Surveys

We LOVE to use surveys in our classes. They’re interactive and get students up and out of their seats talking to everyone in the class. Plus, you design them for any topic and in this case, you’d want to lean towards current events or business-type things.

Do you want to try them out in your classes? Find out more details about how to design them and use them in your classes here: ESL Surveys .

Teaching Business English

#14: Filling out an Application Form

If students are in our business English classes, it’s quite likely that they may apply for jobs abroad. In this case, they’ll have to fill out applications in English. We can give them some practice with this in class before they have to do it for real.

You can easily find applications on Google. Print them off and have your students work on them in class or for homework.

#15: Running Dictation

If you want to introduce some grammar, vocabulary or topic via a conversation, here’s a fun way to do it that gets beyond just reading it from the textbook. Print off the dialogue and then cut it up into strips which you’ll tape on the wall around the classroom.

Put students into pairs and one person is the runner/reader/speaker while the other person is sitting down with pen and paper and is the writer. Students have to work together to get the entire conversation down on paper and then put it into the correct order.

It’s challenging, fun and students always really enjoy it! Try out this 4-skills ESL activity today: ESL Running Dictation.

#16: Mock Interviews

English interviews are very common these days, even in non-English speaking countries. They’re an excellent way for companies to weed out the people who can actually converse in English from those who can’t.

Help your students out with them by doing some mock interviews in your classes. But, remember this key tip. DO NOT let your students memorize answers. Interviewers can smell this out from a mile away. Instead, encourage taking a few notes about answers to common questions but then just speaking.

#17: Proof-Reading and Editing

It’s quite common for our students to have to write business emails in English. We can help them out with this in a big way by teaching them about proofreading and editing. After all, it’s not that common to have a colleague or boss checking emails before they go out to clients, so it’s an important skill for our students to know.

Check this article out to find out how I teach this skill to my students: Proof-Reading and Editing for English Learners.

#18: Resume and Cover Letter Writing

When I teach business English, one of the primary homework assignments is that students have to prepare a resume as well as a cover letter for a sample job that I think of. Of course, give students lots of help with how to do this, along with some samples that they can follow.

My goal is that students have something they can take with them and use when applying for positions with just a little bit of editing.

• 196 Pages - 04/16/2023 (Publication Date)

#19: TED Talks

I love to use TED Talks with my business English learners. There are just so many good presentations on a huge variety of topics, especially important business ideas.

#20: Self-Introductions

A self-introduction in English is a great skill for your students to have. They’ll often have to do one in a job interview, at a conference or at a meeting where the people aren’t familiar with each other. Check out this video for the simple steps to follow:

#21: Breaking News English

With my students, I’ll often print off some lessons from Breaking News English . They take current events and grade them to make them easier for beginner to intermediate students (more advanced students should just use the regular article). There are also some excellent discussion questions and vocabulary activities that you might want to consider using.

#22: Business English Pod

If students are motivated to study business English on their own, one of my favourite resources that I like to direct them to is BE Pod . They are podcasts, phone conversations and a whole ton of other good stuff related to business. There is a paid version, but the free one is useful enough.

#23: Business English Vocabulary and Dialogues 

One of the more valuable things for our students can be to help them expand their business English vocabulary. One way to do this is with real-life dialogues, filled with idioms, expressions, and phrases. Check out these Business English dialogues here:

• 128 Pages - 11/25/2020 (Publication Date)

#24: Business English ESL, Using Movie and TV Clips

There are a ton of great movies and TV shows that cover various aspects of the business world. You can easily find them on YouTube, or you may already have a few favourites.

I love to include these in my ESL business English conversation classes. They make a nice lead-in activity for just about any grammar, vocabulary or skill you might want to focus on. Find out some of my top options here:

Teaching with Movies and TV .

#25: Business English Listening Lesson Plan

It’s super easy to create your own listening lesson about almost any topic. Just follow these simple steps:

#26: Have a Debate

I love to talk about interesting things and I’m sure that your students are the same! Why not have a little debate about something related to the business world? Here are some ideas:

Debate Questions

For something a bit more casual, check these ones out:

Debating Topics for Friends

#27: Business English Game: Describe the Word

A simple business English game is to put students into pairs or small groups. Then, one student has to pick a word from a list and describe it to the other people who have to guess what it is. It’s a nice time-filler game at the end of class because it’s a nice review activity.

#28: Business English Charades

Another fun game to try out in class is charades. Come up with a bunch of words or phrases related to what you’ve been teaching the students. Then, put students into teams and they have to take turns acting out that word or phrases and their teammates have to guess what it is. Check it out:

Charades for ESL .

#29: Make a Sentence using Business English Vocabulary

Try out this challenging sentence-making activity. If you’re using a textbook, open it up to a page at random and quickly choose a word. Students have 30 seconds to make an interesting sentence about it. If you have a big class, they can share with a partner. If a small class, share with everyone.

#30: Make a Crossword Puzzle

It’s quite easy to make your own puzzle using Discovery’s puzzle maker (do a Google search for it). Input the clues and the answers and the website does the rest! It can serve as a nice review activity or homework assignment before a midterm or final exam.

What about Business English for Beginners?

Business English for beginners can be a little bit tricky. How can you negotiate a complicated deal, or talk about a contract if you struggle with making a basic sentence and don’t know a lot of even general vocabulary?

Here are my top 5 tips for teaching beginners Business English:

• Start with basic conversational English skills first. It’s quite difficult to teach exclusively Business English unless students are at least a very high beginner level of basic skills.
• For topics and contexts, choose something with a business focus. Perhaps a simple reading or listening passage talking about a company or a problem that someone may face in the business world.
• A lot of business involves small talk! Focus on this skill by giving students lots of practice.
• Don’t ignore basic writing skills. Things like capital letters and punctuation, along with basic openings and closings can go a long way in writing a business email, for example.
• Focus on industry-specific jargon. Each industry has a specific vocabulary related to it. Target this to your students. A needs analysis is key to this.

What are some Common Business English Topics?

There are a few business English topics that must be covered in a class. Here are some of the most popular topics and skills for a Business English class to cover:

• Negotiations . A large part of business involves negotiation so this topic should certainly be covered!
• Interviews . Help students out with their English interview skills.
• Managing a crisis . Businesses have problems. Help students work through these problems, in English. It’s certainly an important topic to consider teaching.
• Presentations . Many people in the business world have to make a presentation at one point, or another. Help students out with this!
• Meetings . All meetings have certain conventions including opening and closing, turn-taking, etc. Conducting a meeting as a class is a nice topic.
• Hiring and firing . All businesses need employees! This makes hiring and firing them an important topic to include.
• Performance reviews . Similar to the one above, there is a certain set of language used to evaluate work.
• Resumes and cover letters . A nice topic is to help students prepare their resumes and cover letters in English.
• Risk management. An interesting Business English topic is how a company can manage risk and prevent bad things from happening.
• Small talk. A lot of business happens informally, at lunch or around the office. Help students learn how to initiate, conduct and close these types of conversations.

Business English dialogues and topics

Business English Resources 

If you’re looking for some resources for teaching Business English, here are a few of my go-to websites and course books:

• Business English Pod
• Market Leader textbook
• Breaking News English
• CBC (Canada), BBC (UK), CNN (USA), etc. websites for higher-level students and authentic materials.
• How I Built Thing podcast
• Learn English (British Council) has a nice section for business English
• How to Teach Business English Book (Evan Frendo)

Business English Worksheets

If you want to find some business English worksheets that you can just print and use with your students, here are some of the best resources:

ISL Collective

Busy Teacher

Business English Lesson Plans

If you’re looking for some ready-made ESL lesson plans for business students, then you’re in the right place. Here are some of our top recommendations for ESL business English lesson plans:

Lingua House

One Stop English

Business English ESL FAQs

There are a number of common questions that people have about teaching ESL business English. Here are the answers to some of the most popular ones.

What is ESL Business English?

ESL Business English is a specific ESL niche tailored to business terminology, topics and corporate culture. It is useful for businessmen, businesswomen, and business students.

How do I teach Business English for ESL?

Here are a few quick tips for teaching Business English ESL:

• Do a detailed needs analysis to find out what students want to achieve and also to uncover strengths and weaknesses.
• Find out which contexts students use business English (negotiation, writing emails, interviews, etc.)
• Dress and act professionally.
• Choose materials well to keep students motivated and interested.
• Have a high degree of flexibility.

Is Business English formal?

Business English is more formal than just regular chit-chat with friends. It may also have some industry-specific jargon which you’ll need to learn. However, simple communication is often best so aim for this instead of overly complicated grammatical structures.

What makes a Good Business English Instructor?

A good business English instructor is one who dresses and acts professionally, the same as their students. This means that they are punctual, competent and well-prepared for each lesson. It can also be useful for the instructor to have a background in business themselves.

What is one of the challenges of teaching Business English?

One of the main challenges in teaching business English is that companies and students often expect some serious results. This may mean increased pressure on the teacher to deliver them. However, many teachers are handsomely rewarded for this stress if they are elite teachers.

What are some fun Business English games?

Some fun business English games are charades, Pictionary, describing a word, role-plays, crossword puzzles with business English vocabulary, and running dictation.

Business English Dialogues

• 115 Pages - 12/01/2020 (Publication Date)

If you’re looking for some business English dialogues for your students, look no further than these books! They are filled with dialogues, vocabulary, and practice exercises to cover a huge range of business topics.

They’re ideal for use in a course, or for self-study at home. Consider using them for 1-1 tutoring as well. Whatever the case, get ready for some great results with these dialogues for Business English.

ESL Business Activities: Join the Conversation

What are your thoughts about these business English activities? Have you tried out one of them from this list or do you have another recommendation? Leave a comment below and let us know. We’d love to hear from you?

Also be sure to give this article a share on Facebook, Pinterest, or Twitter. It’ll help other busy English teachers, like yourself find this useful resource.

Last update on 2024-04-14 / Affiliate links / Images from Amazon Product Advertising API

About Jackie

Jackie Bolen has been teaching English for more than 15 years to students in South Korea and Canada. She's taught all ages, levels and kinds of TEFL classes. She holds an MA degree, along with the Celta and Delta English teaching certifications.

Jackie is the author of more than 100 books for English teachers and English learners, including 101 ESL Activities for Teenagers and Adults and 1001 English Expressions and Phrases . She loves to share her ESL games, activities, teaching tips, and more with other teachers throughout the world.

You can find her on social media at: YouTube Facebook TikTok Pinterest Instagram

Thank you! Will definitely be trying some of these business English activities out with my students next week.

I teach business English in China and found this list so helpful! Thanks so much for all the ideas and I’ve honestly never heard of Business English Pod before. I know, crazy!

Thank you, Jackie. It’s great to know there’s support out there like yours.

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LIST OF WRITTEN ASSIGNMENTS – BUSINESS ENGLISH 2

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